ii. This is the 4th budget by the
Narendra Modi government. It was broadly focused on 10 issues rural population,
farming sector, infrastructure, youth, poor and health care for the
underprivileged, financial sector for stronger institutions, public services, speedy
accountability, tax administration for the honest and prudent fiscal
management.

2. FISCAL
DEFICIT REACHES 94% OF THE BUDGET ESTIMATE

i. Fiscal deficit in the first 9 months
of 2016-17 touched 93.9 % of the Budget estimate. The fiscal deficit had stood
at 87.9% in the corresponding 9 months a year ago. The fiscal deficit is the
gap between revenue and expenditure.

ii. According to data released by the
Controller General of Accounts, tax revenue was 71.4% of the full-year budget
estimate. Total expenditure, Plan and Non-Plan, was 74.3% of the government's
full-year estimate.

3.
RAJASTHAN, TELANGANA BAG EGOV AWARDS

i. This year, under the State category,
Telangana and Rajasthan emerged Winners of Excellence while the Award of
Recognition went to Nagaland and Odisha.

ii. Instituted by the Computer Society
of India’s Special Interest Group with sponsorship from Nihilent Technologies,
these awards help recognize the efforts of eGovernance practitioners from
across central and state departments, projects and in district administrative
units as well.

i. The Ministry of Railway has proposed
the Finance Ministry to create a non-lapsable safety fund named ‘Rashtriya Rail
Sanraksha Kosh’ over 5 years with initial corpus of Rs. 20000 cr and contribute
a portion to fund it in the Budget 2017.

ii. The decision to set up the safety
fund is based on the recommendation of a high-level safety review committee
under the chairmanship of Dr. Anil Kakodkar, former chairman of Atomic Energy
Commission.